Carolina Panthers cornerback Captain Munnerlyn will be presented with a key to the city during the Mobile City Council meeting at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Munnerlyn recalls how "the whole school stopped" when South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier came to Murphy on a recruiting visit. He also said Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Mike Shula, who was Alabama's head coach during Munnerlyn's recruitment, reminds him often "we could have had you at Alabama."

NEW ORLEANS — A knowing grin spread across Sean Tuohy's face as he considered the uncanny connections between the hit film that changed his family's life and the fact that Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman Michael Oher will play in his first Super Bowl in the Big Easy.

New Orleans is where Tuohy grew up and went to high school with author Michael Lewis, who wrote "The Blind Side."

The book led to the movie, which depicted the Tuohys' rewarding experience as Oher's adoptive family. Actress Sandra Bullock, who starred as Sean Tuohy's wife, Leigh Anne, owns a home in New Orleans.

"And there are people that think that's a coincidence," Sean Tuohy said. "How stupid is that?"

... Randolph Scottridin' the trail alone?Whatever happened to Gene and Tex,and Roy, and Rex, the Durango Kid?Oh, Whatever happened to Randolph Scott,his horse plain as could be?Whatever happened to Randolph Scotthas happened to the best of me.

... Randolph Scottridin' the trail alone?Whatever happened to Gene and Tex,and Roy, and Rex, the Durango Kid?Oh, Whatever happened to Randolph Scott,his horse plain as could be?Whatever happened to Randolph Scotthas happened to the best of me.

Barkley: “Ernie, you’re not gonna believe this. Being the Auburn guy that I am, I wanted to be first class. I went down to the University of Alabama to congratulate the Crimson Tide on winning the BCS Championship – and I got mugged. I got mugged in Tuscaloosa, Ernie, and my credit cards are missing.”

...Tayshaun Prince and the fan who learned he had been traded to Memphis

On Christmas, one of Cory Brandt’s cousins, a Pacers’ season ticket holder, knew of Cory’s love of Tayshaun Prince, who had played for just over a decade for the Detroit Pistons. So as a present, the cousin gave his two tickets for the Jan. 30 Pistons at Pacers game to Cory.

“I knew the tickets were in the end zone next to where the teams come out,” Cory says. “I was so excited that I kept the tickets in a safe at home.”

Cory didn’t think anything of it when Prince was absent in pregame warmups. There wasn’t any conversation in the stands why Prince wasn’t with the rest of the team.

But when the Pistons ran on the floor five minutes before the 7 p.m. tipoff, Cory leaned over the rail to find Prince, who never made it to the court with his teammates.

“I checked ESPN on my phone to see if there was any news, and there was nothing,” Cory says. “Then, I called a friend sitting upstairs in a suite. He tells me Tayshaun had been traded (to the Memphis Grizzlies).”

With TV cameras unknowingly aimed at him the whole time while he was leaning over the rail of the exit searching for Prince and when was checking his phone and making the call to learn the bad news, Cory pulled off the Prince Pistons No. 22 jersey.

He stood there disgusted, wearing a blue Kentucky T-shirt over a white Kentucky T-shirt.

“I took off the Pistons jersey, because I’m a Tayshaun Prince fan, not a Pistons fan,” Cory says. “It was so frustrating, because I knew he was like in the building just a few feet from me. But he couldn’t come out, because he had been traded.”

By 2 p.m. the next day, Cory’s phone was blowing up with texts. Had he seen the video? It was ESPN’s “Around the Horn.” (sic) It was everywhere.“At first, it was embarrassing,” Cory, says. “Then, I kind of got used to it. (sic)

A few days later on Super Bowl Sunday, Cory got a call from Nikki Boertman, a photographer for my employer, The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis. Boertman had seen Cory’s jersey-stripping clip, and empathized.

“I’m a fan and I really felt for him as a fan,” Boertman says. “I wanted to do something for him.”

Boertman, with the help of Commercial Appeal publisher George Cogswell and the Grizzlies, arranged for Cory, Carrie and Landon to be Cogswell’s guests at Sunday’s Grizzlies’ home game against Minnesota in FedExForum.

What Cory didn’t know was Prince had agreed to meet on the court with Cory before the game, present him with a new personally autographed No. 21 Grizzlies’ Prince jersey.

Prince looked forward to the meeting, because he remembered what it was like to be a fan. Being raised in Compton, Calif., Prince’s main man was Lakers’ star Magic Johnson.

ANGOLA — LSU football legend Billy Cannon was in intensive care Tuesday afternoon after suffering a stroke earlier in the day.

Louisiana State Penitentiary Warden Burl Cain said a prison ambulance transported the former LSU football star to a Baton Rouge hospital about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Cannon, 75, the 1959 Heisman Trophy winner, is a dentist and has been director of the prison’s dental program for about 15 years.

An LSU athletic department news release confirmed that Cannon had a stroke and would be held overnight for testing.

“LSU football legend Billy Cannon has been hospitalized due to a stroke, but he is alert and resting, his family informed LSU Tuesday afternoon,” the statement said. “Doctors will conduct tests to determine the extent of the stroke, according to the family. Cannon will remain in ICU tonight. The family expressed its thanks for the prayers and concerns of friends and fans.”

WESTLAKE, Texas — The Herschel Walker you know is likely the one who won the Heisman Trophy, played 15 years of professional football and pursued a number of competitions — from bobsledding to mixed martial arts.

There’s the Herschel who collects antique automobiles, the Herschel who is trying to improve his golf game.

You are likely familiar with the Herschel who is still doing 3,500 sit-ups and 1,500 pushups daily, the one who weighs two pounds less than the 220 pounds of his playing days at the University of Georgia. Now aged 51, Herschel has always considered himself the best-conditioned athlete in the world. Nothing has changed.

Then there is Herschel Walker the businessman. His business umbrella corporation is Herschel Walker Enterprises. His Renaissance Man Food Services, a subsidiary headquartered in Savannah, owns three processing plants in Siloam Springs, Ark., and sales in the U.S. and Canada the last couple of years make him the largest minority chicken company in the country. Then there is 34 Productions, which deals with the promotional side of his business and athletic interests and is the parent of his new restaurant on Clayton Street in Athens, Herschel’s Famous 34 Pub & Grill.

Cannon, LSU's only Heisman Trophy winner and the director of the dental program at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, spent the first night in intensive care and was moved to a private room on Wednesday.

"I talked to him on Tuesday and he had a little slurred speech and a little restricted movement in his left arm," said close friend and former teammate Warren Rabb, who played quarterback on LSU's first national championship team in 1958 with Cannon, a running back. "What little movement he lost got back.

"He looked great. We were laughing and joking about old times. If anybody could pull through this, it's him."

BATON ROUGE — LSU Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon is home and expected to return to normal health in four to six weeks following a stroke on Tuesday, his family said Saturday.

"We would like to thank everyone so much for the supportive emails, calls and prayers during the last week," Cannon's daughter Bunnie Cannon said through LSU's sports information office. "We are humbled and grateful. We also wish to thank the doctors, nurses and employees of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center."

Cannon, 75, was discharged Thursday after spending two nights in the hospital. "He was walking all over the place," Cannon friend and former LSU track coach Boots Garland said. "He was doing a lot better."

Spent most of last season on Jacksonville's practice squad. He was active for one game, Oct. 28 at Green Bay, but did not play. The former Bama starter has not played in a regular-season game in his three seasons.

POINT CLEAR, Alabama - Ken Stabler is hosting the XOXO Invitational on Friday and Saturday, a celebrity tournament at Lakewood Golf Club that's a fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mobile.

If you think you haven't seen much of the Snake lately, then you weren't around for Friday night's two-way lovefest in Foley that was officially called the 2013 Legends Dinner, a benefit for the Foley High football program that included five other former SEC football standouts on the stage with Stabler.

At that event, Stabler fondly remembered the 29-1 record that he and his teammates recorded as Foley Lions under football coach Ivan Jones, how he always thought he'd be a baseball player while growing up in south Baldwin County and the time the race car he and his dad built blew the flywheel right through the floorboard, ripping the penny loafer off Stabler's right foot in the process.

"Like Muhammad Ali said, 'The giving we do is the rent we pay to be here,' and I'm just trying to pay the rent. That stuck with me when he said that. That's kind of what we are supposed to do. We have to take care of each other."

Stabler said he's not playing golf this week, but would serve as the tournament's emcee.

Some of the celebrity team captains announced for the event include Pro Football Hall of Famers Richard Dent, Dan Hampton and Dwight Stephenson.

"It is important because we're dealing with oncology and personalized therapy for cancer patients. It's a new technology that, hopefully, is going to help people down the line."

Cox said some of the things that he had to do as an Auburn QB applied to his medical-sales job, too.

"Teamwork, work ethic, those sorts of things," he said. "In my years at Auburn, time management was a big key when it came to classes, workouts and getting things accomplished. Once you get out in the real world, you have those things built into you where you are able to succeed."

Brandon Cox was a three-year starter under center for the Tigers, compiling a 29-9 record in those games from 2005 through 2007. Since three of those victories came in his three outings against Alabama, it's likely Auburn fans will always have a soft spot in their hearts for him.

"It's fun," Cox said. "I was a kid one time. Back in the day, I was an Alabama fan looking up to those players. Jay Barker was a role model of mine. It's fun being in that position where I can sign autographs and be known as the former Auburn quarterback. It's fun to get to hang out with these guys and enjoy the fans."

Cox said he had aspirations of following Barker, who preceded him as a football star at Hewitt-Trussville High School, as an Alabama quarterback. But Crimson Tide coach Dennis Franchione told him he was too slow to run his offense at Bama.

“They’re meaningful to the rest of the country, but Alabama people were used to winning national championships.”

In football.

“They weren’t used to winning conference championships, so it didn’t mean much,” Newton said. “Coach (Paul) Bryant was winning national championships in football, and we won three straight conference championships in basketball. That was meaningful to me, and it was meaningful to a lot of other people. But it didn’t sit all that well with Alabama people.”

Newton coached Alabama from 1968-80 and had a record of 211-123 (.632), but winning isn't his only legacy. In 1969, he signed Wendell Hudson as the first black scholarship athlete in any sport at Alabama.

“If the Good Lord had just said, ‘Here’s the perfect guy to integrate with,’ he’d have sent us Wendell,” Newton said. “It worked out.”

Why?

“He just was egoless,” Newton said of Hudson.

When the subject turned to the current state of college basketball, a reporter asked Newton if the rules are tweaked too much.

“They don’t tweak the rules enough,” he said. “If I were the czar of basketball, I would go to the international lane. We’re the one country in the world that permits a wrestling match in the post. The rest of the world plays a trapezoidal lane. So if I were going to change anything, I’d make the big kid learn to play out on the floor.”

From 1979-85, Newton practically was the czar of college basketball. He served as the chairman of the NCAA Rules Committee, which adopted the 3-point arc, the shot clock and the coaches’ box during that time.

“If I were the czar of basketball, I’d move it into one semester and take all the rule books out,” Newton said. “Move it into the second semester, and the guy’s got to come in and pass 14 hours or whatever of academic credit before he ever gets to play. If you do that, you don’t need test scores or clearinghouses or worry about out-of-season practices or any of that stuff. Just throw the rule book away.”

But CBS prefers the NCAA Tournament in March, wrapping up before the Masters.

“That’s what they hid behind,” Newton said of the NCAA and television. “I was part of negotiating the most recent contract with CBS. I don’t know why we couldn’t use the Masters to lead into basketball rather than vice versa. Yeah, April Madness.”

Dawgs legend Herschel Walker is 51-years old but still ripped. He won a couple mixed-martial arts fights back in 2010 and 11.

"I'd love to do it again I absolutely love MMA. I think it's an excellent sport. . . .If I were younger, I'd be doing it right now. Because I'm a little bit older and I have a business going, I say I'd like to do one more fight, and then I think it's time for me to step aside and give it to the young people. But I'd like to do one more fight."

UFC President Dana White already said Walker isn't cut out for his circuit's heavyweight division. He thinks Walker is a "stud" for being able to fight as a 50-year old, “there's no way he could compete in the UFC heavyweight division."

The charges against Farmer, a popular University of Kentucky basketball player in the 1990s, included misuse of state employees, misuse of state resources, improper use of grants and improper use of "Kentucky Proud" marketing funds.

Most of the charges stem from an investigation by State Auditor Adam Edelen last year that said a "toxic culture of entitlement" permeated the agriculture department under Farmer. The report found that Farmer had state workers build a basketball court in his back yard, take him hunting and shopping, mow his yard and chauffeur his dog between Frankfort and Louisville during the State Fair — all while on the clock.

He also used an extravagant 2008 convention for fellow agriculture commissioners from Southern states to stock his own gun rack and bar, at least partially at taxpayer expense, the audit found.

The ethics commission also made a few new allegations Monday. Farmer and his sister, Rhonda...

Richardson told Cleveland.com that he feels responsible for a new NFL rule that bans running backs from using the crowns of their helmets to ward off defenders. In the Cleveland Browns season opener, Richardson lowered his head and dislodged Philadelphia Eagles' safety Kurt Coleman's hat during a 9-yard run. A clip of the play was shown at the NFL's owners meetings in Phoenix by the competition committee, which used it as an example for why the rule should be instituted.

The rule was passed Wednesday.

"I feel like I made it bad for all the backs," Richardson told Cleveland.com on Wednesday. "I feel like it's my fault.

"That hit made me a hero with Browns fans, but that was just me playing football. That hit made history right there and it was big."

BCB: How are things going for you in the CFL, have you played with or against any former Gamecock players?

SG: It's definitely a different game up there. Its a hard transition. The language is so different (not only the French, but the playbook). The playbook is like reading a foreign language. So much more verbiage I have seen and talked with Sorenson, Carlos, Brandon Issac, Corey Boyd.

BCB: What advice would you give to the incoming freshmen QB's at Carolina?

SG: Tough one. Biggest advice is to stay the hell outta Five Points and stay focused. Once you're in the dog house, it is very difficult to get out.

Chapman was having a happier March Madness experience doing studio work for Turner Sports on its NCAA tourney coverage (which Turner shares with CBS). Over the week, Chapman got to trade insights and barbs with Charles Barkley, Sports Illustrated college basketball writer/CBS analyst Seth Davis and former Michigan State star Steve Smith, among others.

At one point during Chapman's stint, video of then-Auburn star Barkley crying after Kentucky's Kenny Walker hit a last-second jumper to beat the Tigers and win the 1984 SEC Tournament was shown. "Kenny broke his heart," Chapman said, laughing.

By Saturday night, after several Seth Davis NCAA predictions had fizzled, Chapman was referring on air to teams predicted to win by Davis as having received "the kiss of Seth."

After his NBA career ended, Chapman, his wife and their four children settled in Arizona.

Dwayne Douglas, a football coach at the University of Florida, asked: Why didn’t his players urinate after a game?

Part of the answer came quickly: football players lost so much fluid in sweat in swamplike Florida that they had none left to form Miss. It took longer to explain how the loss of fluid and electrolytes affected blood pressure, body temperature and the volume of blood.

In a subbasement, Dr. Cade and his researchers then concocted a drink to rehydrate athletes, and to replenish carbohydrates, in the form of the sugars sucrose and glucose, and electrolytes (sodium and potassium salts). There was one problem.

"It didn't taste like Gatorade," Dr. Cade said in an interview with Florida Trend in 1988. In fact, a football player who tried it and spat it out more than hinted that it tasted like bodily waste.

Being a student of kidneys and their bodily neighborhood, Dr. Cade did a taste test, comparing his still-unnamed concoction with that golden fluid. His new product was only marginally better. Dr. Cade's wife, Mary, suggested adding lemon juice, which helped a lot. Jim Free, a research fellow, came up with the name Gatorade.

Dr. Cade's new concoction wasn't put into use by the Florida football team until an early October game in 1965 against LSU -- a game the Gators won 14-7 in 102 degree heat as LSU faded late in the game. BUT, the game before that, in late September 1965, the Gators played Mississippi State at home, and subsequently lost 18-13, ruining any chances of a SEC title for the Gators that season...

You can catch a glimpse of an MSU player sacking the QB for Florida in the early portion of the video (via the above link). Also, here's a small tidbit for you. Know who the QB at Florida was that year? Some fella named Steve Spurrier.

Former Marion County High and University of Tennessee football player Eric Westmoreland, 36, of Chattanooga, was charged with unlawful possession of controlled substances. He was released on a $3,500 bond.

He and four others, including women named Samantha and Tabitha were arrested after a traffic stop on Alabama Highway 72.

Narcotics Lt. Jimmy Jones and K-9 “Luke” assisted with the stop.

Deputies searched the vehicle and found what they said were oxycodone, phendimetrazine and acyclovir.

... the Bama center who moved Barrett Jones down the line of scrimmage.

Alabama's new center has a familiar face giving him pointers during spring football.

Former Crimson Tide center William Vlachos recently joined the program as a graduate assistant. He's worked extensively with sophomore Ryan Kelly, who has been tasked with filling the shoes of three-time All-American Barrett Jones.

Vlachos, who attended Mountain Brook High School, started at center for three seasons at Alabama. As a senior in 2011, he was a finalist for the Rimington Trophy and was a second-team Walter Camp All-American. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Tennessee Titans but did not make the team.

Vlachos picked up his bachelor's degree before the start of his senior season.

Rolando McClain could be the latest member of Alabama's 2009 BCS National Championship defense to join the Baltimore Ravens. In an interview with the Madison Weekly News, McClain, who was recently cut by the Oakland Raiders, said he plans to sign a one-year deal with the defending Super Bowl champions.

"It's a move that can't go wrong and I'm looking forward to playing in Baltimore as the Ravens run the same or very similar defense as I was a part of at the University of Alabama," McClain told the Weekly News' Bob Labbe.

was back on the Tiger Stadium turf at LSU Saturday performing yet another amazing feat of his physical prowess. This one didn't involve an historic game-winning touchdown run.

The mere fact that he was standing with a group of his dentists from the La. State Penitentiary at Angola, and watching the Tiger football team practice, was a testament to his personal strength.

Less than two months earlier, the 75-year-old Cannon suffered a stroke that put him in intensive care at a Baton Rouge hospital. But LSU's only Heisman Trophy winner shed the stroke like another Ole Miss tackler on his legendary 89-yard punt return from 1959 and has quickly returned to his normal lifestyle.

"I'm having a little trouble with my S's and I don't have all of my strength back yet," Cannon said in a phone interview this week. "The doctors said it's going to come.

"I am so fortunate, so lucky. If I had been at home or out in a pasture, I would have been in serious trouble."

Cannon said it wasn't all him. He benefited from a relatively new treatment for strokes called a "clot buster" injection, or tPA - tissue plasminogen activator. The drug attacks the clot before it has time to solidify and restores normal flow of blood to the brain, Cannon said.

The treatment has to be administered within 4˝ hours of the stroke. When he was stricken, he knew immediately what was happening and was taken to the prison emergency room, then by ambulance to Our Lady of the Lake hospital.

Cannon was released two days later. He returned to work part-time the following Monday and quickly got back to his daily routine, which includes caring for a stable of horses at his St. Francisville home after a day's work at Angola...

UK teammate of John Pelphrey and former Kentucky high school Mr. Basketball Richie Farmer indicted on federal charges of misusing state funds

Former Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer has been indicted by a federal grand jury, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lexington announced Monday morning.

The indictment charges Farmer with four counts of misusing and misappropriating funds from the Department of Agriculture. It also charges him with one count of soliciting property in exchange for influencing department actions.

The charges allege the taking of guns, watches and knives bought as gifts for a convention in 2008.

Each of the five counts carries a penalty of 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000. But any sentence following a conviction would be imposed by a judge under federal court sentencing guidelines.

Richard D. “Richie” Farmer II, 43, of Manchester, used his popularity as a basketball player at Clay County High School and the University of Kentucky to launch a career in politics, winning landslide elections as agriculture commissioner in 2003 and 2007.

Decatur police arrested Rolando McClain and charged the former Alabama linebacker with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest on Sunday

The arrest followed a report of a disturbance at Pines Park in Decatur, police said in a short press release and didn't offer further details.

McClain was released from jail after he posted a $1,000 bond. Both charges are misdemeanors.

McClain, a Decatur native, has had repeated run-ins with Decatur police.

He was convicted in Decatur municipal court on May 18, 2012, of reckless endangerment, menacing, third-degree assault and firing a gun in the city limits after an incident in which he fired a handgun near the head of a childhood friend on Nov. 30, 2011. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail.

McClain appealed the conviction to circuit court, where the charges were dismissed when the victim, Rishard Tapscott, declined to testify, The Decatur Daily reported.

On Jan. 8, less than a week before purchasing a $1 million home in Madison, McClain was arrested in Decatur on charges of violating the city's window tint code as well as providing false information to police.

In Archie’s case, the draft, which was held Jan. 28, 1971, wasn’t the most important thing on his calendar.

He played in his final college game as a senior in the Gator Bowl on Jan. 2 and then played in the Hula Bowl in Honolulu, returning to Oxford to take exams.

“And then Olivia and I were married on Jan. 21,” Archie recalls. “We had planned to get married between semesters. We got married one week before the draft, went on our honeymoon to Acapulco and got back on the night of the 27th.”

So what about pre-draft workouts?

“I remember a Raiders’ scout coming in December before we started bowl practice,” Archie says. “I still had a cast on my left arm, which I broke against Houston. I played against LSU (a 61-17 loss in the last regular season game) and in the Gator Bowl (a 35-28 loss to Auburn) wearing the cast.“This Raiders’ scout just wanted to watch me throw a bit while he talked to me. It wasn’t anything big.”

But what about pre-draft interviews with teams, so they get to know everything about a prospect?

“Henry Lee Parker, the Saints’ director of player personnel, was at my Gator Bowl game,” Archie remembers. “He had been an assistant at Mississippi State. He was the recruiting coordinator who tried to recruit me to go there when I was coming out of (Drew, Miss.) high school.

“I saw him in the airport the day after the Gator Bowl when I was getting ready to fly to Hawaii for the Hula Bowl. I talked to him for a few minutes. He said the Saints might be interested in me, but didn’t know what would happen.

“That was pretty much the extent of my interview process.”

It’s NFL protocol these days to project who will be drafted early, bring them to New York at least a couple of days before the draft and stage organized community service projects designed to promote the league.

The night before Archie was drafted, he and Olivia were moving into an old apartment in Oxford.

“We were scrubbing floors,” Archie says. “I got a call from Billy Gates, the Ole Miss’ sports information director, telling me I needed to be at his office 9 o’clock the next morning, because that’s what time the draft started.

“I’d grown up knowing mostly college football. I honestly hadn’t looked too much at pro football. College was such a whirlwind for me. Billy Gates told me New England had the first pick, New Orleans had the second and Houston had the third. He said all three had called and said to be ready.”

The next morning, Archie was in Gates’ office when the phone rang about 9:15. The Saints called and said they had drafted him.

“I talked to their general manager (Vic Swain), their owner (John Mecom, Jr.) and their head coach (J.D. Roberts),” Archie says. “It was about a two-minute conversation.

“I didn’t know much about the Saints other than they’d been in operation about four years. But of the teams at the top that had a chance to pick me, I was like `Why not New Orleans?’ ”

After Russell Westbrook suffered a season-ending knee injury, Mitchell Brown, a ballboy for the OKC Thunder, tweeted death threats aimed at Houston Rockets guard Patrick Beverley. The police are investigating the matter. Per the Houston Chronicle: “With Rockets guard Patrick Beverley receiving death threats via Twitter on Friday and Saturday following his collision with Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook on Wednesday, Toyota Center security officials took take extra steps to ensure his safety. ‘We definitely took precautions,’ Toyota Center director of security Bryant Savage said. He would not elaborate on any changes in policies or practices. He said security had been tightened for the postseason. ‘We definitely upped everything,’ Savage said. The vitriol about the play in which Westbrook suffered a season-ending knee injury escalated to death threats directed at Beverley, including one from someone who describes himself as a Thunder ball boy. Mitchell Brown sent a tweet that threatened, ‘Patrick Beverly (sic), I’m coming to kill you.’ He sent another using Beverley’s Twitter handle; ‘@pavbev21 I’m coming to kill you.’ Investigation ongoing Capt. Dexter Nelson, a spokesman for the Oklahoma City Police Department, said officers in conjunction with the Houston Police Department and the NBA are looking into what he described as ‘Internet threats.’ [...] Thunder spokesperson Matt Tumbleson said: ‘We do not condone his comments. He works game nights on a voluntary basis. We will handle this matter internally.’ Shortly after Thunder officials were told of the tweets, Brown deleted them with an apology: ‘Yesterday I posted something completely Inappropriate and I need to apologize. I was out of line and it will not happen again.’ He later removed that tweet and said his account was hacked. Many other similar threats have been directed at Beverley, 24.”

OAKLAND -- Less than 10 hours before the Warriors and Denver Nuggets were to do battle in Game 6 of their opening-round NBA playoff series, coaches Mark Jackson and George Karl were still going at it verbally, with Jackson taking exception to Karl's assessment of rookie center Festus Ezeli.

Asked about Ezeli's improvement Wednesday, Karl said that had "blossomed into an elbow and [CENSORED] guy," a common expression about players who create havoc in the key. Jackson didn't like it, though, and said so at the team's shootaround Thursday morning.

"That statement is disrespectful," said the Warriors coach. "I've got a lot of respect for George Karl, the job that he's done and who he is. But that statement is disrespectful. I wonder what he thinks of his players -- Kenyon Martin, Kenneth Faried, JaVale McGee, (Kosta) Koufos. I wonder what he thinks of those guys."

In response to Faried receiving a humanitarian award Wednesday, Jackson added, "Congratulations to him. Well deserved. I will not allow one action or one moment to define who he is as a person or a basketball player. I will not call one of his players an elbow-throwing blank. That won't happen."

While Udonis Haslem was out on April 13, an off night between Heat home games, his Broward County house was targeted by burglars.

Officers responded to an alarm, went to the house and reached Haslem. They found signs of forced entry at the side door of the garage, through the prying of the lock. Drawers were pulled out, and the closet of Haslem’s fiancee was ransacked. Clothes and purses were in garbage bags. Electronics were undisturbed.

The police report draws the conclusion that there was a lookout who alerted the other suspect to the alarm and the arrival of police, and they left through the back door.

Quarterback Danny Wuerffel, who won the 1996 Heisman Trophy and holds the SEC career record with 114 touchdown passes, was selected Tuesday as part of the 2013 College Football Hall of Fame class.

Kentucky end Steve Meilinger, nominated by the Veterans Committee, will also go into the College Football Hall of Fame as part of the 2013 class. Meilinger, who played for Bear Bryant at Kentucky, was a first-team All-American in 1952 and 1953.

During Wuerffel's four years as Florida's quarterback, the Gators won the SEC championship all four seasons from 1993-96. He threw 74 touchdown passes his last two seasons in Steve Spurrier's Fun 'n' Gun offense, which revolutionized the SEC.